Motivating Creativity - The Why and How of Intrinsic Motivation

Motivating creative employees is a prime concern for boosting productivity, innovation and overall quality of work output. While traditional extrinsic motivators such as bonuses or awards may work for some employees, creative workers typically require intrinsic motivators like meaningfulness, choice, competence, and progress. Motivated creative employees are more productive and innovative and tend to make fewer mistakes compared to their demotivated counterparts. They are also typically better advocates of their company, while absence and turnover rates are lower when their motivational needs are met. Intrinsic motivation means that the motivation to do things comes from within, without relying on external rewards or punishments. The four sources of intrinsic motivation can be summarized as meaningfulness, choice, competence, and progress, and motivating employees through these sources can be very fruitful. Companies can take inspiration from Google's employee motivation practices, which include achievable yet challenging goals, influence over work tasks, inspiration from the purpose of the work, support for career and learning, and respect for employees.